This week our nation's most influential newspaper ran a thoughtful, tough-minded op-ed on what to do about climate change that broke a lot of new ground…and seems to been overlooked.
I haven't linked previously, because I'm still mulling its ideas. But the time has come to recommend it to my readers. It's called Disaster at the Top of the World, because it begins with a lengthy look at the melting of the Arctic, but it really should be named after the solution it proposes: Plan Z.
It presumes that we as a society will not act to prevent climate change, which by now is becoming inescapable. And it argues that those societies which nonetheless are prepared to respond to disaster, will be better able to survive the "climate shock" we will see more of in the 21st century:
Policy makers need to accept that societies won’t make drastic changes
to address climate change until such a crisis hits. But that doesn’t
mean there’s nothing for them to do in the meantime. When a crisis does
occur, the societies with response plans on the shelf will be far better
off than those that are blindsided. The task for national and regional
leaders, then, is to develop a set of contingency plans for possible
climate shocks — what we might call, collectively, Plan Z.
How do we prepare for what we have not faced before? Not a philosophical question any longer.
Kit Stolz 